i can't lose you

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Taylor's POV

The air in the room felt thick, suffocating. Every word we exchanged only made it worse, every sentence a jagged edge cutting deeper into the space between us. I could feel the distance growing, like an invisible wall rising higher with each passing second. He stood across from me, his posture tense, arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"Travis..." My voice trembled despite my efforts to keep it steady. "I don't understand. We've been through so much together. I thought—we thought, this was it."

He let out a sharp breath, running a hand through his hair like he was struggling to hold himself together. "I know," he said quietly. "I know, Taylor. But it's not enough anymore."

His words hit me like a slap, the sting reverberating through my entire body. "What do you mean? What's not enough?"

He shook his head, looking anywhere but at me. His gaze kept darting to the floor, to the wall, to the window, anything to avoid meeting my eyes. "It's... it's everything. Us. You. Me. I don't know how to make this work anymore." His voice cracked, and for a brief moment, I thought I might hear the sadness I felt reflected in his tone.

But then he took a breath, steeling himself. "I think we've reached the end, Taylor. I don't love you the way I used to. It's not right to keep pretending."

I froze, the words hanging in the air like poison, suffocating every ounce of hope I had left. "You don't love me?" I whispered, a knot forming in my throat. "But... we've built so much. What happened to everything we said? All the promises?"

He looked at me finally, his eyes a mixture of pain and resignation. "It's not that simple," he said, his voice thick. "You don't get it. I'm not happy anymore. And I don't think you are either." He paused, his gaze softening, like he was trying to find the right words but couldn't. "We've changed, Tay. And not in the way we needed to."

I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. Not in front of him. Not like this. "So... this is it? You're just going to walk away?"

His silence was the loudest answer I could have gotten. He took a step back, the finality of the movement like a knife to my chest. "I think it's the only choice we have left."

"Don't," I whispered, my breath hitching. "Please don't do this. I can't- I can't lose you."

"You already have," he said softly, like the words were as much for him as they were for me. "I'm sorry, Taylor. I really am. But I think we've come to the end of the road."

And then, like it was all so easy, like everything we had meant nothing anymore, he turned and walked out.

Just like that, the door clicked shut behind him, and the world felt like it collapsed in on me.

I stayed there, standing in the middle of the room, numb, the empty space around me more suffocating than I ever imagined it could be.

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The sound of rain pattering against the windows echoed through the empty house. I sat on the couch, the soft fabric sinking beneath me as I stared at the space around me, feeling as if I were in a fog. 

The house was quiet. Too quiet. It used to hum with life, laughter, voices, movement. Now, it felt hollow, as if everything that once filled it had been taken away, piece by piece.

I couldn't even remember how long it had been since I last saw him. The days had blurred into weeks, and the weeks into months. It felt like the moment he left had stretched out into eternity, pulling everything with it, my happiness, my sense of stability, the future I had once so carefully built.

I hugged my knees to my chest, leaning my forehead against the cool glass of the window. The rain slid down the surface, the droplets trailing each other, mimicking the tears I hadn't let myself cry in a while. I had convinced myself that I needed to be strong. That I could handle this. But how could I?

How could I handle the empty silence when he wasn't here to fill it? How could I stand the weight of the memories, each one sharper than the last, when I knew I would never make new ones with him?

The way he used to smile at me, like I was the only person in the world who mattered. The way he'd pull me close, his arms wrapping around me like a shield against everything. I could still feel the warmth of his touch, even though it had been gone for so long. But the warmth had faded. Everything had faded.

I took a deep breath, but it only made the ache in my chest worse. It felt like I was suffocating, like I could never fully get a breath again. The space beside me on the couch where he used to sit was empty, and I couldn't stop staring at it, as if my gaze alone could make him reappear.

But he wouldn't. He wasn't coming back.

He had walked away from me, from us, and no matter how many times I replayed the argument in my head, no matter how many times I convinced myself it could have been different, the truth remained the same. He was gone.

I'd begged him to stay. I'd asked him, pleaded with him, but he left anyway. And the hardest part wasn't the leaving, it was the knowing that I couldn't change it. That no matter how many times I apologized or how many tears I shed, nothing would bring him back.

I could still hear his voice, his quiet words that cut through everything. "I need space. I can't do this anymore."

It was the finality of it that hurt the most. That there was no room for compromise, no chance to fix things. He was done, and I had no choice but to let him go.

I closed my eyes, feeling the weight of the loss press down on me. It wasn't just him I had lost—it was everything. The plans we'd made. The dreams we'd talked about. The love we'd shared.

I reached up and wiped away a tear before it could fall, but more came anyway. They didn't stop. They just kept coming, like a flood I had no control over. I didn't know how long I cried. Minutes? Hours? Time seemed irrelevant in the face of this kind of pain.

And all I could think was that I was alone. I was alone in this empty house, in this quiet world where the only sound was the rain and my broken heart.

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